How Jackie Robinson Impacted New York

Going into the third year of Citi Field’s existence, the beautiful park in Willets Point/Flushing has been maligned with controversy. It’s been soaked with snark and populist anger; the financial crisis that crippled Citibank made the moniker “Taxpayer Field” stick for a few weeks in the local media as the financial services company received TARP funds. It has also been lambasted as another publicly-funded stadium; though the Yankees were a larger target, the Mets didn’t exactly escape criticism for taking public funds to build its new home. Yet, there’s another critique that sticks out as peculiar and that’s for the homage paid to arguably the most important sports figure in American history, Jackie Robinson.

There were some people, even friends, who questioned why the Mets paid a significant and permanent homage to a man who never played for them (and in a twisted turn, giving respect for a franchise that left for Los Angeles). They felt that retiring “42” throughout baseball was the ultimate honor; one that would have deemed any other permanent remembrance unnecessary. However, Fred Wilpon – owner of the Mets – is known as much for his reverence for the Brooklyn Dodgers era and New York’s National League heritage as he has become notorious for his and his team’s current financial issues. No matter what can be said about the stewardship of the Mets over the years, he openly embraced the city’s other baseball history when Citi Field was built.

He knew that the legacy of Robinson is in the DNA of New York.

As sports fans have learned over the last century, New York City, not just the borough of Brooklyn, is a place that has no problem telling you it demands, rather expects winning. [NOTE: For those who haven’t heard, Brooklyn is a rather proud borough. To this day and certainly on this day, many Brooklynites are celebrating Robinson as one of their own. And he was.] It’s not exactly unlike any other city or town with a franchise built on ticket sales, merchandise and television. Yet, even if we don’t admit it as a whole, NYC demands some overt personality and work ethic en route to absolute dominance. We want alpha males that define leadership, even if it doesn’t always work. We want offensive flair and pizzazz though defense made a few of our teams into contenders and champions. Most of all, we don’t care where you came from or where you might decide to live during the season, but we want you to be one of us while you’re here.

The thing about Robinson and his Dodgers was while they became the most progressive sociological experiment – three more black players came to the fold after Robinson, including Roy Campanella – success on the diamond wasn’t easy in a city where there’s always another team to be compared to (or in those days, two). The Dodgers were much more successful than their rival Giants, whose questionable management and ownership almost wasted the talents of Willie Mays (almost). Yet, the Yankees were… the Yankees.

The battles between the teams in seven World Series (six with Robinson on the team) were reflections of a contrast between fan bases and adopted ideologies, even if reality may have differed. What you think of the Yankees now is what people thought of in the 1940s & 50s: more Upper East Side & Wall Street than Mott Haven and Fordham Road, rich, stodgy, arrogant, lily-white, yet head and shoulders better than all comers. The Brooklyn Dodgers were the ideal opposite in every way, even though putting a baseball team on equal financial standing with butcher shops or grocers is a huge stretch. The fact that the Dodgers spurred integration in professional team sports gave Brooklyn a colored stitch in its flag that it waved to the world.

Robinson represented a new direction for the sport, but his presence in New York was a challenge for a city that calls itself a melting pot. The country’s population as undergoing significant shifts as the First Great Migration had found blacks settling and developing roots in the North. During his time with the Dodgers, the Second Great Migration found African-Americans spreading out further across the country, but still seeking employment in New York. Always a destination for European immigrants, NYC‘s population began to swell and “brown” a bit. The Migrations allowed Southern-born blacks to grow roots into the city while waves of Latinos made their way to the Boroughs as well. Truth be told, no matter how open New York claimed to be, these new residents clashed with the mainstays; causing racial tensions before, during and after Jackie.

What Robinson did, however, was prove the old adage about sports; we love you as long as you’re winning. From his first World Series appearance as a rookie to garnering MVP honors in 1949, Robinson was a true franchise player that owner Walter O’Malley (yes, I said his name here) and general manager Branch Rickey built around. His accolades speak for themselves, but above it all, a stubborn dignity to face the venom on and off the field made Robinson a black public icon where few existed. This especially matters because as New York City was telling the world it was open for business in pre-World War II times, it had an extremely difficult time embracing ethnic diversity within its ports.

There’s no question that Jackie Robinson was more than a baseball player; on a national scale, he remains the most transcendent African-American athlete in the history of team sports. However, in terms of his importance to New York City – not just Brooklyn – how his presence impacted the city’s racial dynamics could and should never be forgotten. We take that for granted in this modern metropolis; generations of New Yorkers never witnessed overt and wide-scale racial strife, though we are certainly aware that racism is alive and real.

Though it’s far too late to change the permanent honors bestowed by Wilpon and the Mets, I hope they don’t even consider altering or removing one brick of the glorious Rotunda. I hope the larger-than-life “42” stands tall, waiting for more baseball fans (Mets or otherwise) to take pictures with and admire. I hope the footsteps casted in his memory remind each visitor to Citi Field that each one of us can cast our own for better days ahead. I hope those who still question why a Dodger is revered in Mets territory can take a glance at the still-changing ethnic diversity of the fans inside the stadium and say, “now, I get it.”

Thank you, Jackie.

Say What?!?!: I live next to Jackie Robinson Park here in Harlem; a 12.77 acre, ten-block gem that’s been through hell and back over the years. What used to be called Colonial Park was the last place you wanted to be during the day, let alone at night. It was renamed in Robinson’s honor in 1978; the midst of some of Harlem’s darkest days. It took far more than a name change to clean up JRP, rather two decades of persistence and championing to bring it from the brink. The Park has been a part of my family’s history for close to 20 years as we’ve been a part of its revitalization.

I mention this because at its northern end borders the former home of the final version of the Polo Grounds where Willie Mays once roamed. There was likely consternation about naming the Park in Robinson’s honor, but you couldn’t tell around these parts. The Giants may have called Harlem home before leaving for San Francisco, but in this community, Robinson and Mays were teammates in a far different game than the one on the diamond.

Why So Many Race Conversations About the NBA?

[This Scribe has been sick, otherwise, this would have been published over the weekend. Hey, black history, as that of everyone in this world, is written every day, not just February.]

Recently, yours truly participated in a panel about the perception of African-Americans in the media at the CUNY School of Law which was put together by the school’s Black Law School Association chapter. It was a privilege to be a part of this for three reasons.

One, those who attended already had a long day of classes and they stuck around to listen to my drivel instead of going home right away. Two, the fellow panelists are far more distinguished than I am, yet, I felt like I was on that level, if only for an evening. Finally, for my perspectives to be considered in what is always a lightning rod for controversy said a lot about where I’ve been, where I’m hoping to go and how much more I have to learn.

From the diverse angles of media, law, finance, legislation, politics and academia, all of us were asked about how the images of blacks have an effect on daily life.

The moderator and longtime friend, Jamaal Bailey, directed several questions unique to the expertise of each panelist. He asked me that of all the sports I follow and have covered, in which sports organization does the topic of race come up with the most.

It was interesting because no matter what level of play, race does come up in every sport. It’s not just about how someone will espouse ignorance, but it’s also about what each observer brings to the table. Our experiences can cloud or clarify what we see on the field, can enhance or debase what we talk about and can inspire or belittle those with an investment in these contests.

However, considering that this was focused towards a predominantly black audience, I explained that I found race come up most often in two sports; boxing and basketball, specifically the NBA brand. And although boxing has always found a way to use prejudice to its promotional advantage, that’s certainly not the case for the NBA.

Courtesy of technovore

So why are there more race discussions about the NBA than everywhere else in our sports landscape? Well, it would be too easy to give this Scribe’s take, though you can always ask. However, I asked this question recently through social media and received a few interesting responses. What you’ll read might speak to a common thread, but each brings something else to consider. It’s easy to agree or disagree, but one thing’s certain, we don’t talk about any other league like this.

Jessica Bader (Colleague with The Perpetual Post): It's the one major sport where the athletes never wear a helmet (making them individuals rather than part of the faceless masses of the team) and the one in which the uniforms expose the most skin (disastrous short-lived Chicago White Sox experiments notwithstanding).


Merv Matthew (Assistant Professor at DePauw University, Indiana): It's the only league of the top four where a single minority group has all the best players. Football has a lot of top black players, but they also have the Mannings, Brady, etc. Hockey has a bunch of foreign dudes, and baseball has a pretty big mix. When was the last time anyone other than a black guy was in consideration for being the best player in the NBA?

I'm not sure how much the skin exposure counts, but Jessica has a point with the faces being exposed. People get to see the NBA athletes more than any other athletes on their playing fields. Throw in the fact that the smaller rosters make anonymity even harder to achieve in the NBA and it becomes easier to understand.


Pedro Cruz (Previously contributed to piece for Norman Einstein’s): It could be that the mainstream consciousness still sees predominantly white as the norm, the baseline upon which everything else can be added, like a junior partner in a firm, to compose a minority, but never really to take majority control. It may be what fuels the "fear" of the United States becoming predominantly Latino by 2050, the lionizing of segregation-era baseball, the continued worship of a ballplayer from that era still being hailed as the greatest player of all time even though he never played a regulation game against a player not from his own race.

It could also be what fuels many folks to speak of hockey's "old-school" mentality, of how NHL players are of a unique quality...even though they fight far more often than any other American athlete and routinely take cheap shots at each other. Why was Donald Brashear considered such a dirty player when he was no more dirty that Marty McSorley or any other NHL tough, and was the victim in his most infamous on-ice incident? Why is Peyton Manning, or more comparably Brian Urlacher, always hailed for his intelligence and leadership while Ray Lewis is praised for his physicality and brute strength? As a baseball guy, I hear some similar things about Latino athletes, especially black Latino athletes. Maybe the discussion will mirror that of the NBA if black Latino players become a large majority…

Mainstream consciousness just sees white as normal, along with it this protestant work ethic which seems to be freely assumed of white players more easily than those of color, leadership roles naturally belonging to them too, and anything outside of that as a "problem" in need of solving. The NBA is predominantly black. This may well be the reason. Infuriating, I know.


Shirley Huang, Esq. (Attorney in Ft. Myers, FL): I think the NFL and NBA both have a lot of discussion about race but it's slightly different. In the NFL, it's a white-black thing mostly when it comes to quarterbacks and everyone else... There's the whole "quarterbacks (i.e. predominantly White players) are the intelligent ones" and everyone else (Black players) just has athleticism" debate. The thing with the NBA might be that the highest paid players are (probably--I'm just guessing because I don't pay attention to salary reports) all Black. You have fans that are of all races who might "love" Kobe Bryant or LeBron James but hate Black people.

I think part of it is also due to the "thug mentality" that some might believe dominates the league. You have very few white American players in the league so I'm sure there has to be some resentment there. I mean look at that one guy who tried to create an all-white basketball league that was going to be all about "fundamentals."[Ed. Note: ah, yes, can't ever forget this]. There's already a league that's all about fundamentals; it's called the WNBA!


David Lee (Also contributed to piece for Norman Einstein’s): NHL gets a lot of conversations about race as well, seeing how it’s predominantly white. In fact you could say it’s more drastic in the NHL than the NBA. In the NBA there are several All Stars (or former ones) who were not black (Nash, Nowitzki, Yao etc). In the NHL, there aren’t many. The only current player I can think of is (Jarome) Iginla.